Education, Basic Skills and Health-related Outcomes
| Title | Education, Basic Skills and Health-related Outcomes |
| Author(s) | De Coulon, Meschi, Yates |
| Organisation | NRDC, London Institute of Education |
| Date | May 2010 |
| No. of pages | 40 |
| Key words | educational attainment; learner attainment; basic skills; health; binge drinking; obesity; smoking; employment; well-being |
| Description | The report analyses the relationship between human capital, measured by highest education levels and basic skills, and three health-related outcomes: drinking, smoking and body weight, exploring the role of formal education, as measured by level of qualification attained and basic skills assessed by literacy and numeracy tests |
| Select quotations | …education significantly reduced the probability of being a smoker (and smoking intensity), of being a binge drinker and of being classified as obese.” “Using a longitudinal analysis over the age 16 to 34, we also find that past behaviours do have an important impact on the current one for the probability of being a heavy drinker and being obese.” “…education is an important factor in the generation of healthier lifestyles in the UK. Our results indicate that basic skills are also important in the production of good health but we do not find any effect of basic skills once the highest education level has been introduced.” “Overall, this report provides support for policies aimed at increasing adult skills in order to improve health-related outcomes in the UK. Our results appear to apply uniformly across the education distribution and do not differ significantly by gender.” “Full-time employment tends to increase the probability of drinking, smoking and being obese.” “…living with a partner decreases the probability of binge drinking and of being a smoker but tends to be associated with a higher probability of being obese and overweight.” |
| Link | www.nrdc.org.uk/publications_details.asp?ID=167#doc_4674.pdf |
